In the art of making bricks, at times it is desirable to roll or otherwise shape the longitudinal edges of the brick to simulate old bricks or for other esthetic reasons. In the past when reel cutters were used to sever bricks from a slug, when it was desired to roll or otherwise shape the edges of the bricks, a technique termed in industry "paper cutting" was utilized. In this technique, paper was placed over the top surface or face of the slug so that when the rotating wire of the reel cutter descended upon and through the slug, the pressure on the paper as the wires severed through the paper and then through the brick resulted in the desired rolled edges along the top surface of the bricks.
In recent years, stationary or "push-through" wire cutters for forming bricks in many instances, have replaced reel cutters. Stationary wire cutters employ a plurality of generally vertical fixed wires spaced across a conveyor path so that when the slug is pushed through the wires, a plurality of bricks are formed on the "downstream" side of the wires. With the use of such stationary wire cutters, the problem arose that the paper cutting technique could not be employed due to the fact that the cutting wires are vertical and stationary and do not descend upon the slug in the manner of a reel cutter.
During recent years several attempts have been made to shape or otherwise roll the edges of green bricks formed through a stationary wire cutter. These methods usually have involved forming rollers or other members placed above the bricks to engage the edges of the bricks to shape them to the desired condition. While these methods may impart the desired rolled edge or other shape to the bricks, they create a most serious problem later during the processing of the bricks when it becomes necessary to space the rows of bricks for setting them on a kiln car or otherwise. For example, when "side grip" setters are used which grip the opposite sides of the brick, the rows of bricks are first spread apart by a spread table thus allowing the gripping members to descend between the bricks to engage the opposite sides of the bricks to pick them up and set them on a kiln car where they are taken to a kiln for firing and drying. Spread tables are disclosed, for example, in patents to Pearne, U.S. Pat. No. 3,478,397 and Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 4,119,217. The aforementioned problem was that when such spread tables were moved apart to space the rows of bricks, it was found that the bricks in adjacent rows adhered to each other and this was caused by brick material which was deformed and moved downwardly between the rows of bricks by the shaping rollers utilized to shape the edges of the bricks. Adherence of the rows of bricks to each other would naturally frustrate further processing of the bricks.
One attempt to solve the above problem is disclosed in the patent to Postell, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,491, issued Apr. 3, 1979. According to the method disclosed in this patent, after the bricks are formed by pushing through a stationary wire cutter, alternate rows of bricks are elevated by ramps to place adjacent rows of bricks at different levels thus exposing the upper edges of alternate rows of bricks for engagement by rollers which shape the edges. This method utilizes a single roller for each row of bricks, that is, the roller has opposite end flanges which engage the opposite edges of the same brick in a single row; there being a plurality of such rollers for a plurality of rows of bricks. While such rollers may be used to impart a certain shape to the edges of the brick, they have been found to suffer from the drawback that they also create a bulge at upper sides of the brick at the edges stemming from the brick material which is displaced by the rollers.
The above method disclosed in the Postell, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,147,491 also has been found to possess another, serious drawback, because it requires a vibrator 28 (see FIG. 4 and column 4, lines 44 to 50) for the purpose of returning the elevated bricks to the conveyor path. While the vibrators function to return the elevated bricks to the conveyor path, they also undesirably at times change the position or spacing between the rows of bricks to change the overall width of the entire group of bricks across the conveyor path. Subsequently, the groups of bricks may not be susceptible to machine-handling such as by a spread table or setter because of the change in dimension.
Another problem which has arisen with other types of shaping rollers apart from the aforementioned problem, was that the shaping rollers had to be adjusted periodically so that they would fit into the wire cutline between the rows of bricks because the cut line undergoes a slight deviation from a straight path.